1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a multi-functional floor-cleaning tool capable of directing a high-pressure jet of liquid onto a hard surface, while substantially confining the liquid to the interior space of the tool when the tool is positioned in contact with the particular surface, and when a vacuum is generated, thereby evacuating soils and sprayed liquid from the interior of the tools to a remote location Such tools are appropriate for use in cleaning any suitable surface, with non-limiting examples including tile floors, tile walls, and other hard surfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
Maintaining the cleanliness of commercial, industrial, institutional, and public buildings is an ongoing effort, and at times, an effort which seems more like a losing battle. This is particularly true for areas such as restrooms, locker rooms, cafeterias, food service kitchens, patient rooms, waiting rooms, factory floors, and other high-traffic areas, where the volume of traffic in the particular area may make it difficult to maintain the cleanliness of the facility.
Building maintenance staff typically clean such areas on a routine basis using traditional mop-and-bucket assemblies, in which the bucket includes a detachable mop wringer, and is positioned on caster wheels, thereby enabling a building maintenance person to move the mop bucket from place to place, typically by pushing on the mop handle. Depending on the cleanliness of the mop, a worker may be able to make a good start in cleaning a floor using the mop bucket system. However, as soon as the worker makes a first pass and wrings the mop out, the entire mop bucket system is contaminated. From that point on, each time the worker plunges the mop into the bucket and rings the mop out, both the mop and xe2x80x9ccleaning waterxe2x80x9d become more and more dirty.
One way to attempt to solve this problem is to make frequent water and mop changes. However, this adds time to an already laborious process, and therefore, there is little worker incentive to make frequent water and mop changes. Moreover, because a slop sink, source of clean water, or custodial supply room may be far away, a worker is even less inclined to make water and mop changes.
The end result is that a dirty floor gets cleaned by pushing dirty water around with a dirty mop. At best, the surface may have the appearance of being cleaned if concentrated spots of highly visible soil have been removed or spread around. In reality, however, given the limitations of these tools, the worker still is simply pushing dirt around the floor, as evidenced by the xe2x80x9cfive-o""clock shadowxe2x80x9d of dirt seen frequently along the surface of walls adjacent the floor, as well as the xe2x80x9cfinger painting-like streaksxe2x80x9d left by the mop when the water on the floor dries.
The cleanliness problem may be especially severe in the restrooms of these various buildings, and in fact, the number-one building maintenance complaint is dirty restrooms. Given the frequency with which these facilities are used, as well as the tools available for cleaning restrooms, the dirty restrooms complaint is not particularly surprising. Building maintenance workers typically use the mop-and-bucket system described above to clean restrooms floors. And, as noted above, while this system may pick up some dirt, it tends more typically to spread dirty water around on the floor. In addition, the mop-and-bucket system simply does not xe2x80x9ccut itxe2x80x9d when comes to dealing with greasy, slippery kitchen floors. Moreover, as with many restrooms floors, most kitchen floors are formed of tiles having group lines in between each tile. And because the group lines tend to hold onto grease and other soils even more tenaciously than the tiles themselves, it has been extremely difficult, if not impossible, to thoroughly clean such kitchen floors.
The sanitation maintenance industry offers other pieces of cleaning equipment, such as pressure washers, wet vacs, pump-up sprayers, and janitor""s carts. However, because of the limitations of several of these tools, as well as their single-task focus, sanitary maintenance professionals tend to use them in actual cleaning either infrequently, or not at all.
Most pressure washers operate at a pressure of 1000 PSI and above, a pressure which is far too high for many cleaning applications. For example, if such a pressure washer were use to mechanically clean a painted wall, it would blast the paint off of the wall surface. On the other end of the pressure spectrum are pressure washers having a pressure of about 100 PSI or less. And because of the type of pump used in these low pressure sprayers, the liquid exiting the sprayer actually has a far, far lower pressure, for example, about 40 PSI. Although such a low-pressure washer may be beneficial in applying a cleaning solution, it lacks the mechanical power required to actually clean a particular surface once the solution has been applied. Because pressure washers generally include a single clean-liquid water tank or container, both cleaning chemicals and water are loaded into this same container, which may be damaging to the device, particularly if a harsh cleaning chemical passes through a mechanical component, such as a pump. Because most pressure washers do not have there own water source, an operator must use a garden-type hose, and must have ongoing access to a corresponding faucet throughout the pressure washing process. Moreover, these pressure washers generally lack a convenient on-board storage system for storing the garden hose and power cord during transport.
Conventional wet-vacs provide a user with the ability to vacuum soiled cleaning solution from a floor. However, movement of these devices from place to place can be difficult because the vac hose, wand, and various tools typically must be carried independently of the wet-vac device. Furthermore, the drain outlet on such devices is designed for draining into a custodial slop sink, thereby requiring the user to take the wet-vac to a particular location in order to drain the device.
Pump-up sprayers also are available, which enable a sanitation maintenance worker to sprinkle a cleaning solution under low-pressure onto a particular surface. In addition, the Industry provides various mobile janitorial carts, which may include storage shelves for various supplies, as well as a frame for a trash bag.
As is apparent from the discussion of the various cleaning tools presented above, sanitary maintenance professionals have a variety of tools from which to choose. However, these tools are either inadequate to do a proper cleaning job, or are so task-specific that they become user-unfriendly, given the many aspects involved in proper sanitation maintenance. Accordingly, given the relative ineffectiveness and/or inefficiency of the various tools available, particular facilities are not cleaned as well or as frequently as they should be, and morale and job satisfaction among many building maintenance professionals are relatively low.
The invention overcomes the limitations discussed above by providing a multi-functional floor-cleaning tool for use with a pressurized-liquid source and a vacuum source. In one aspect of the invention, the tool includes: a housing having a front wall, a back wall, a top wall connecting the front and back walls, an interior surface, a liquid-delivery opening, and a soil-uptake opening, the soil-uptake opening being connectable to a vacuum source; a first squeegee blade depending from the front wall; a second squeegee blade depending from the back wall; an interior space defined by the interior surface, first squeegee blade, and second squeegee blade; a diverter valve connected to the housing, the diverter valve having at least an inlet, a first outlet, a second outlet, and a diverter, the diverter capable of selectively directing the flow of a pressurized liquid from the inlet to either the first outlet or the second outlet, the diverter valve being connectable to a pressurized-liquid source; a high-pressure nozzle connected to the first outlet of the diverter valve, the high-pressure nozzle constructed and arranged to deliver a liquid into the interior space via the liquid-delivery opening; and a low-pressure nozzle connected to the second outlet of the diverter valve, the low-pressure nozzle constructed and arranged to deliver a liquid exterior to the interior space.
In another aspect, the high-pressure nozzle of the multi-functional floor-cleaning tool has an outlet orifice, and the high-pressure nozzle is constructed to deliver a focused, pinpoint jet of liquid from the outlet orifice.
In a further aspect, the low-pressure nozzle is constructed and arranged to deliver a liquid downward from behind the back wall of the housing.
In yet another aspect, the low-pressure nozzle is a fan nozzle, whereby a liquid exiting the low-pressure nozzle has a fan-shaped pattern.
In yet a further aspect, the low-pressure nozzle has an outlet orifice and an arcuate deflector plate spaced from the outlet orifice.
In another aspect, the diverter valve is a three-way valve having an inlet, a first outlet, a second outlet, and a diverter, the diverter capable of selectively directing the flow of a liquid from the inlet to either the first outlet or the second outlet.
In a further aspect, the diverter valve includes a handle operatively connected to the diverter, thereby enabling an operator to selectively direct the flow of a liquid from the inlet to either the first outlet or the second outlet.
In yet another aspect, the diverter of the diverter valve may be oriented in a plurality of positions so as to provide larger and smaller flow paths to the first outlet, larger and smaller flow paths to the second outlet, and a completely blocked flow path to both the first and second outlets.
In yet a further aspect, each of the first and second squeegee blades has an exterior surface and a base surface, the exterior surface including serrations which extend from the base surface upward toward the housing.
In another aspect, the housing further includes at least two wheels or glides.